A former clerk employed at the Kottayam municipality, Akhil C Varghese, who is wanted in connection with the pension fund scam amounting to ₹2.4 crore, made 55 transactions in 4 years to commit the fraud, according to the latest local fund audit report of the civic body for 2023-24.

Akhil has been on the run since the fraud was discovered. The case was handed over to the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau. A police investigation is also underway. Recently, the local self-government department has initiated steps to dismiss him from service after he failed to respond to the charge memo.

Akhil handled the pension section at the Kottayam municipality from February 2020 to October 2023. He was later transferred to the Vaikom municipality. The audit report shows that he forged documents to transfer money every month to the account of Syamala P. The Secretary of the Municipality has reported that Syamala is the mother of Akhil. Even after being transferred to Vaikom, Akhil would still come to Kottayam, took advantage of the lack of computer knowledge of another staff member and made corrections in statements furnished to the bank and continued transferring money to his mother's account.

The audit report indicates that serious shortcomings in the Municipality's pension distribution system led to the fraud. The civic body does not maintain a comprehensive register of pensioners, and no annual review is done. Due to fund shortage, pension is disbursed in instalments. With data on pension benefits being stored improperly, it is difficult to detect duplication.

In the absence of software, the list of pensioners is prepared manually, including details such as the name of the pensioner, pension sum, and account number, and is then handed over to the bank. This provides an opportunity for the staff at the section to make corrections even after being verified by the senior officials, before the list is given to the bank. The officials made lapses in ensuring the amount to be transferred to over 400 pensioners. The Secretary also reported that many officials concerned have failed to maintain files regarding registers.